BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The scene looks normal -- a father kicking a
soccer ball to his children, rubbing their heads in playful
affection. The iconic towers and fence in the background tell the
real story.

"When they first come in, I'm so excited. I'm so happy to see
them, and everything," says Attica State Prison inmate Thomas Gant,
who University at Buffalo Law School Professor Teresa A. Miller
describes as a baby-faced 35-year-old preacher's son serving 25
years to life for a second-degree murder committed when he was 21
years old.

"And the second day, everybody is being a little nervous," he
continues in the video footage of Gant's visit with his wife and
four children behind Attica's walls. "I have to find out how
they're doing in school, how they're doing around the house.

"The second day we usually get to talking more deep. They have
to get used to the environment. Let them calm down and unwind. The
second day is when we get more intimate. We have more of the talks.
I get the boys together, find out what's on their minds."

Gant's use of the word "intimate" is well-chosen. The
eight-minute segment of Miller's upcoming documentary "Attica: The
Bars That Bind Us" featuring Gant shows an almost uncomfortably
revealing look at Gant's limited attempts to be a father and
husband while behind bars, as well as his family's reactions to his
efforts. The segment -- ending with Gant saying goodbye to his
family as they leave the prison -- represents a tiny fraction of
the work Miller has been doing for the last five years.

Miller's purpose: to show -- in as immediate a way as possible
-- the "human costs" of living in a large men's maximum security
prison through the voices of prisoners and their family members,
the warden, correctional officers and others.

This video segment features Gant, one of the inmates who allowed
Miller extraordinary access into their lives behind bars. But it's
the equivalent of a trailer for a film trilogy, a few minutes from
the more than 60 hours of footage Miller has compiled using a Canon
digital video camera to show firsthand how long-term exposure in
prisons like Attica affects everyone -- prison guards,
administrators and staff --and not just the inmates.

When Miller distills her marathon project into one sentence,
it's this: An irony of broad-scale incarceration is that
correctional officers and inmates are both "doing the same time,"
she says. They both pay a high price for living and working behind
Attica's walls.

"Ultimately, the film is about the human toll on those who have
long-term exposure to Attica State Prison as inmates or staff,"
says Miller, whose work in prisoners' rights and advocacy has
spanned the last 17 years. A constant through this research has
been her attempt to be "comprehensive." Miller works with many
people affiliated in various ways with Attica Prison and the larger
prison system, including inmates, guards, civilians, volunteers and
the families of those incarcerated.

"When I began working in prisons, I had the traditional idea
that inmates and prison staff have widely varying, disparate
experiences," says Miller. "However, after extensive exposure to so
many different areas of Attica and so many different people, all
connected by working or living in the prison, I came to realize
that their experiences are two sides of the same coin.

"The negative effects of prison reach farther than just the
inmates, pervading the experience of any- and everyone attached to
the facility long term. The film attempts to shed light on the
bleak picture incarceration paints for all who live and work in the
maximum security setting."

The film, Miller explains, "is about aspects of your humanity
you must deny, or boldly buck the system to maintain, in order to
survive Attica.

"Rather than construct inmates or guards as heroes or villains,
this film demonstrates that the nemesis is a criminal justice
system that responds to problems of wealth inequality, racism and
drug addiction through mass incarceration."

Miller has spent more than 100 hours behind Attica's walls over
the past 17 years. The task of post-production is as much of a
challenge as the filming was, she says. Besides the demands of
compiling the footage into the actual film, Miller must attend to
marketing and funding of the film, something she is using the
increasingly popular crowd-funding platform "Kickstarter" to
do.

Miller regularly takes UB law school students into Attica in
order to enhance the learning experience. In doing so, she attempts
to broaden the study of prisons in law, extending beyond
traditional academic outlets, and delving into visual and social
media. She has also partnered with New York's oldest prison reform
organization, the Correctional Association of New York, to bolster
public awareness of the need for prison reform. She attempts to
reassess the prison system itself and the methods by which to
interrogate its existence. "Attica: The Bars That Bind Us" is a
prime example of this.

It's innovative and -- some may say-- pioneering work at the
juncture of law school and digital videography, where teaching
future, socially aware lawyers and prison reform combine. Last
September, Miller organized a conference marking the 40th
anniversary of the Attica riots, the deadliest prison riots in the
country's history in which 39 people were killed after state
troopers stormed the prison in response to inmates gaining control
of the prison and taking hostages.

The three-day conference at UB -- located an hour from the
prison -- attracted national attention and brought survivors of the
riot -- prison guards and inmates --together for the first time
since the uprising.

Miller's film, scheduled to be finished and released in
commercial theaters in late 2013, introduces four major characters,
then follows them, and several other minor characters, through the
daily challenges of making a life in Attica. This includes the
uncertainty of the superintendent's announcement of plans to retire
as well as the approaching 40th anniversary of the Attica
uprisings.

The four main characters, each of them what Miller calls an
Attica "long-termer," are:

-- Superintendent James Conway, a second-generation prison
employee who grew up in the Village of Attica, and who will retire
soon, after eight years of commanding Attica State Prison, capping
a 26-year career in corrections. Miller's documentary shows
Conway's struggling with the responsibility of keeping Attica's
correctional officers in line. At the same time, he needs to
recognize the concerns of the inmate population which, if not
addressed, could spark another uprising.

-- Gant, the preacher's son from the East Side of Buffalo, who
tried to keep a positive attitude while struggling with his
feelings of bidding his family good-bye as they left the prison.
Gant struggles to parent his children from prison, and to be a
positive role model.

-- Inmate Jose DiLenola, a Puerto Rican 30-something child of a
deaf prostitute who is serving 24 years to life for beating a man
to death. Locked up since his early, angry teenaged years, DiLenola
has matured into a quiet, contemplative man, and a devout Muslim,
fighting to stay centered in a prison marked by everyday random
violence.

-- Officer Larry Lewis, a black officer, called by his faith in
God to work with inmates in one of the toughest prisons for a black
officer to survive in.

"When I first got there, that was the difficulty for me working
in the visit room," says Lewis at the end of the Thomas Gant
segment, "because I saw this young inmate. He had his wife and two
beautiful kids, a boy and a girl. And when it was time to leave,
the girl started to cry, 'But I want Daddy to come.' And I want to
tell you something: That bothered me. Because first of all, I had
to keep up that macho CO look. I had to keep order. But behind all
that front, I was torn up. The kids are hurting. The kids are doing
time, too."

With permission to film inside of Attica so rarely granted,
Miller at once felt the weight of the responsibility along with the
excitement of the opportunity to make a powerful statement with her
film.

"I knew that I had only a limited window in which to
realistically capture life and work inside a very complex
institution," she says.

As she embarks upon the editing of the project into a feature
length film, Miller feels the pressure to "get it right."

"I take the viewer along as we jointly explore the unexpected,"
she says. "Everything is not as it seems. The footage shot deep in
the interior of the prison, as well as the opinions of both
correctional officers and inmates, will surprise the viewer. It
will cause you to question much of what you thought you knew about
Attica."

Social Media / RSS

Get essential information and services—from the latest
news and Bulls headlines, to interactive maps, dining and
transportation information, and a lot more—anytime, anywhere,
right from your mobile device. Go mobile today!